Personality, Character, and Intelligence: Part Three from What the Dog Saw

by Malcolm Gladwell

What is the difference between choking and panicking? Why are there dozens of varieties of mustard-but only one variety of ketchup? What do football players teach us about how to hire teachers? What does hair dye tell us about the history of the 20th century? In the past decade, Malcolm Gladwell has written three books that have radically changed how we understand our world and The Tipping Point; Blink; and Outliers. Now, in What the Dog Saw, he brings together, for the first time, the best of his writing from The New Yorker over the same period. Here is the bittersweet tale of the inventor of the birth control pill, and the dazzling inventions of the pasta sauce pioneer Howard Moscowitz. Gladwell sits with Ron Popeil, the king of the American kitchen, as he sells rotisserie ovens, and divines the secrets of Cesar Millan, the "dog whisperer" who can calm savage animals with the touch of his hand. He explores intelligence tests and ethnic profiling and "hindsight bias" and why it was that everyone in Silicon Valley once tripped over themselves to hire the same college graduate. "Good writing," Gladwell says in his preface, "does not succeed or fail on the strength of its ability to persuade. It succeeds or fails on the strength of its ability to engage you, to make you think, to give you a glimpse into someone else's head." What the Dog Saw is yet another example of the buoyant spirit and unflagging curiosity that have made Malcolm Gladwell our most brilliant investigator of the hidden extraordinary.

Genres: Nonfiction, Psychology, Business, Self Help, Personal Development, Sociology, Essays

100 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Malcolm Timothy Gladwell is a Canadian journalist, author, and public speaker. He has been a staff writer for The New Yorker since 1996. He has published seven books. He is also the host of the podcast Revisionist History and co-founder of the podcast company Pushkin Industries.
Gladwell's writings often deal with the unexpected implications of research in the social sciences, such as sociology and psychology, and make frequent and extended use of academic work. Gladwell was appointed to the Order of Canada in 2011.

Reviews

[Alina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting,with references to other psychology works.

[Mohammed Algarawi · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the second part of the collection of articles Malcolm Gladwell has chosen from his writings for The New Yorker. This part is about Personality, Character, And Intelligence. As Gladwell usually does, he tackles quirky subjects and discusses them to come up with conclusions that serves as gateways to larger meanings. In this part he talks about a variety of subject, such as hiring, college graduates, crimes and criminal profiling, and dogs.

I LOVE Gladwell's style, and I enjoyed all of his books. But my problem with this one, maybe only this part, is that I didn't enjoy the subjects he tackled.

In his previous books, you could see how he takes you bottom up, from small, seemingly random topics, up to the bigger picture. That approach made his other books really interesting, even if you didn't enjoy the small topics he discussed in order to reach his conclusion. In the case of this book, it couldn't be done for the fact that it's merely a collection of his favorite writings.


My favorite article in this book was "Are Smart People Overrated?"

Malcom tackles in this article the scandal of Enron. The article is really really interesting. And I enjoyed it the most for the fact that I just joined the corporate world only 6 months ago. Enron went broke for a bad decision its executives have taken. Gladwell takes on this matter from roots to symptoms.

[Paul Mamani · Rating 5 out of 5]

What is the difference between choking and panicking? Why are there dozens of varieties of mustard-but only one variety of ketchup? What do football players teach us about how to hire teachers? What does hair dye tell us about the history of the 20th century?

In the past decade, Malcolm Gladwell has written three books that have radically changed how we understand our world and ourselves: The Tipping Point; Blink; and Outliers. Now, in What the Dog Saw, he brings together, for the first time, the best of his writing from The New Yorker over the same period.

Here is the bittersweet tale of the inventor of the birth control pill, and the dazzling inventions of the pasta sauce pioneer Howard Moscowitz. Gladwell sits with Ron Popeil, the king of the American kitchen, as he sells rotisserie ovens, and divines the secrets of Cesar Millan, the “dog whisperer” who can calm savage animals with the touch of his hand. He explores intelligence tests and ethnic profiling and “hindsight bias” and why it was that everyone in Silicon Valley once tripped over themselves to hire the same college graduate.

“Good writing,” Gladwell says in his preface, “does not succeed or fail on the strength of its ability to persuade. It succeeds or fails on the strength of its ability to engage you, to make you think, to give you a glimpse into someone else’s head.” What the Dog Saw is yet another example of the buoyant spirit and unflagging curiosity that have made Malcolm Gladwell our most brilliant investigator of the hidden extraordinary.

[erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

easy to read (listen to)... but when he gets something that I think I know about pretty wrong, I had to rethink if what he is saying is really very grounded in research as he claims or if it is just entertaining.

[Javier Villar · Rating 4 out of 5]

The chapter on late bloomers was great. I gotta admit I see myself reflected in Cezanne's story, even though I cannot paint a coloring book. Certain things take time and persistence, even when the fruit of the effort is not evident. Persistence is faith.

Good chapter too the one on how to hire.

[Virginia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some of essays thought provoking, couple kind of funny but on the whole didn't rock my boat.

[Gary Mcfarlane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anti-vaxxers should read but .... they would protest.

[Gordon Paisley · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of essays, with some interesting ideas but little theme or conclusion. Very readable, but not much meat.

[Carolyn Lawman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Partial to the “Late Bloomers’ chapter as I have rounded the corners of 50. Tells the story of Ben Fountain, a successful real estate lawyer who decides he want he wants to drop out and write fiction. Eighteen years later, the “young writer” would have success by the age of forty-eight. This chapter goes through examples of “genius” in art, literature, poetry, and film to debunk our beliefs that genius is for the young “But sometimes, genius is anything but rarefied; sometimes it is just that thing that emerges after twenty years of working at your kitchen table”

“The Talent Myth” chapter is hitting close to home because we are amid the SAT, college applications, etc. season of our lives. This topic tends to dominate any “mom talk” lately with the anxiety just oozing off of all of us as our kids struggle to make what has been ingrained into them and into us “the biggest decision of their lives.” This chapter is well worth the read for anyone going through this patch of life. Loved this quote: “What IQ doesn’t pick up is effectiveness at common-sense sorts of things, especially working with people,” Richard Wagner, a psychologist at Florida State University says “In terms of how we evaluate schooling, everything is about working by yourself. If you work with someone else, it’s called cheating. Once you get out in the real world, everything you do involves working with people”

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

A captivating journey into questions that hold some merit in life but are rarely thought of. This is a good book to expand your thinking and knowledge. I love the questions presented in this book and the stories that are told along with them to illustrate the author's point or perspective. I recommend this book to everyone.

[Kms · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stories and connections were fantastic. Didn't go for a five because the overall themes weren't as neatly woven together as I'd like from the author's perspective. For a compendium of his articles, it had descent flow and was fun to read/think about (as usual).

[Marlene · Rating 5 out of 5]

Haven't read any Malcolm Gladwell before this. Kicking myself. This is fantastic. My library loan on the eBook starts tomorrow. Will have to loan it out again.

Okay, I finished Part 3. Want to loan out Parts 1 and 2. This was a great collection of columns.

[Constance T. Carroll · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting provocative thinking

Short essay,that challenge conventional wisdom .lively written researched to substantiate opinions of writer. Seems to wander does not truly look at other points of view. Leaves reader to decide outcome.

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Malcolm Gladwell even though I don't agree with everything he says. I enjoy hearing his thoughts and theories on things. this book is quite fascinating. .